It's a bird, it's a plane... Burris leads Ticats to 41-28 win

Burris shredded the Montreal Alouettes,
tying his career high with five touchdown passes and the leading the
Ticats to 41-28 win that not only improved Hamilton’s record to 5-8
but enhanced playoff chances dramatically.

A week after a demoralizing road loss
in Winnipeg, Hamilton looked like the team that was expected to be a
juggernaut from opening day. They got sublime performances from a
slew of receivers – Andy Fantuz and Dave Stala both had two TDs
while Bakari Grant had a team-high eight catches – while running
back Avon Cobourne had another 100-yard rushing game. The defence
held Anthony Calvillo and the vaunted Montreal offence more or less
in check.

The Ticats opened the scoring after
accomplishing two rare feats: getting a two-and-out stop from the
defence and finishing a drive with a touchdown. After forcing
Montreal to punt on their opening possession, Burris moved the
offence 74 yards in a crisp eight plays, capping it with a short toss
to Fantuz in the end zone and quick 7-0 lead.

Burris was at it again just minutes
later – he was eight of nine on his first two drives – and the
Ticats scored another major on a slant to Chris Williams to extend
the lead to a mildly surprisingly 14-0 after 15 minutes.

The Alouettes got right back in the
game, however, courtesy of a Ticat miscue. After Cobourne started the
game at running back for Hamilton, rookie Chevon Walker took over to
start the second quarter and promptly fumbled his first touch after
missing a month with a hip injury. The Alouettes recovered and
short-yardage quarterback Adrian McPherson punched it in two plays
later to cut the home team's advantage in half.

A long return by Onrea Jones on the
ensuing kickoff put the Ticats back in business, however, and Burris
hit Fantuz for his second touchdown catch of the night to make it
21-7. The Alouettes responded immediately, Calvillo hitting Jamel
Richardson for a 21-yard strike.

But Burris kept rolling: another
eight-play drive, another TD pass, this one to Stala with the
Montreal defender draped all over him. To cap off his superlative
half – 18 or 21, 204 yards, four touchdowns, no picks, 20 first
downs – the Hamilton QB put the Ticats into scoring position and
Luca Congi hit 24-yard field goal as time expired. That made the
score 31-14 after 30 minutes, one which featured four Burris TD
passes and not a single Josh Bartel punt.

The mojo went missing early in the
third, however, as the Ticats coughed three sacks and a Burris pick
through the first ten minutes. The Hamilton defence stood tall on the
first scoring chance, forcing a Calvillo incompletion on
third-and-three deep inside their own territory – defensive end
Brandon Pegeuse knocked it down as part of his monster game – but
the Alouettes got another scoring chance after a long Trent Guy punt
return. This time, they'd make no mistake and a Chris Jennings
touchdown run cut the Hamilton lead to 10 with three minutes to play
in quarter No. 3.

It was gut check time.

The Ticats responded with a seven-play,
75-yard drive that featured four Burris completions and a 17-yard
strike to Stala who bulled his way into the end zone, then led the
Ivor Wynne faithful in a spirited Oskee Wee Wee rendition. It gave
the Ticats a comfortable 38-21 lead that the rode the rest of the
way. Hamilton got another Congi field goal before Calvillo added
another score with just over two minutes left for the final points.

Up next for the Ticats: a road game in
Edmonton that will have massive playoff implications given that the
Eskimos are battling for a crossover playoff spot. A super hero's
work, it would seem, is never done.

Notes: Burris threw his 285th career
touchdown pass in the first quarter, moving him past Tracy Ham for
fifth place on CFL's all-time list... starting corner Chris
Rwabukamba was a late scratch due to a family emergency and used
three Canadian receivers to make up for loss of the non-import...
veteran Canadian linebacker Yannick Carter, a strong special teams
player, made his season debut after battling knee problems for more
than a year... Friday was Ticat linebacker Kevin Eiben's 33rd
birthday... Chris Williams now has a league-high 13 touchdowns... the
Ticats honoured Garney Henley at halftime... attendance was
announced as 23,784.

Comments

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28 pts. Given up. Big deal. 7 on a fumble & 7 in garbage time. At this point I could not care less about any stat other than the scoreboard. We won & that is all that matters. Micro-analyzing the victory seems counter productive to me. As long as we play to win, I do not care how the "W" is achieved.

@James- I agree when the receivers step up and catch the ball, Burris does well. As soon as they start dropping passes that should be caught Hank starts hanging on to the ball too long like he is afraid they won't make the plays if he throws and he'afraid of being intercepted. I thought that was how he was playing last week in Winnipeg. No, one game does not a playoff spot ensure but at least they didn't go into another losing dive. Most wins have come at home. They need to put together this kind of performance on the road in both Calgary and Edmonton in the next few weeks as well as at the Rogers Centre for the last game of the season.

Interesting.
It seems when our receivers actually catch the ball Hank has a great game. When they drop easy catches as they have many times lately Hank goes in the tank.
Not down playing Hank's performance but tonight the receivers stepped up. Hank was good but the receivers did their jobs...probably making Hank look a little better than his stats show.
A little bit of a swoon in the 3rd quarter but the defence actually made stops when they had too.
I'm not getting too pumped up yet...it's only one game but, if the Cats receivers can make the first few catches in the next game Hank may go on fire again.

28 pts against...I know 7 came off of the fumble by Chevy....but that still bothers me. A better game? Yes....Am I sold.....nope. Go in and show the same result against Edmonton next week ( who are in the same boat with their offence as we are with our D) and maybe just maybe....we can mention the word playoffs. Nice to see Andy get his two TDs and who knew Dave Stala could play receiver....about darn time. Just throwing it out there....I know Williams is the Most Outstanding player....but I think Cobourne is our MVP. Go Cats!

Oskee Wee Wee - GREAT GAME TICATS!! Love to see them beat Montreal! If only they could lay a beating like that on the Bombers too! Esks not having a great game in Calgary (3rd quarter) but they will be desperate for a win next week at home if they lose tonight. Superhero Burris will be needed most likely then!